UK’s first zero-emission autonomous bus launched in Didcot

Milton Park, First Bus and partners have launched a bus service with a difference in Oxfordshire. Martin Curtis reports

The official launch of the first zero-emission autonomous bus service in the UK took place on 23 January at Milton Park, Didcot. This £4.3m project has been led by First Bus and largely supported by the UK Government. The launch was attended by Buses Minister Richard Holden and Janette Bell, Managing Director of First Bus.

Milton Park is a major business, science and technology park in Oxfordshire where 250 businesses and 9,000 people are based. It has a network of internal connecting roads whilst also being served by local bus services.

Funding and partners

Funding for the project has been provided by the Department for Transport’s Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) and a number of other partners. In addition to those mentioned elsewhere, they include the Centre for Transport & Society at the University of the West of England (UWE), Zipabout, which created the journey planner and QR codes for the service, and NovaModus consultants. Oxfordshire County Council, South Oxfordshire District Council and the Vale of the White Horse have all assisted in bringing the service to fruition.

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Councillor Duncan Enright, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Travel and Development Strategy, said: “Oxfordshire is at the forefront of the developments in autonomous vehicles and we, as a council, are proud to be a partner. Innovation like this has an important role to play in helping us achieve our goal of creating a net-zero transport network by 2040.”

CTO at Zipabout Daniel Chick said: “The Mi-Link Circular 1 service is an example of forward-thinking collaboration which puts passenges’ needs first and encourages long-term sustainable transport choices.

“Passengers will receive real-time accurate unbiased information about their journeys around Milton Park, enabling them to travel seamlessly. Local authorities and operators will be able to better understand transport demand in the area through the use of data and insight, paving the way to behavioural change for mobility.”

Graham Parkhurst, Professor of Sustainable Mobility and Director of the Centre for Transport & Society at UWE Bristol, commented: “Much investment in recent years has gone into developing autonomous private cars, but that approach will not solve the critical problem of the transport sector’s contribution to climate change. Mi-Link is a rare autonomous vehicle project focussing on buses, but powered by electricity, and I am delighted that UWE Bristol is having the chance to study these new technologies applied to a real-world service carrying members of the public.”

The Centre for Transport & Society (CTS) is an interdisciplinary centre of excellence in academic research on mobility, travel behaviour, transport policy analysis and technological change in the transport sector. Its objective is to improve and promote understanding of the interlinkages between lifestyles and personal travel in the context of social, political and technological change. CTS has also worked in partnership with industry and the public sector, including several collaborative projects on autonomous road transport.

Vehicles

The autonomous bus revealed at the launch was a Mellor Orion E, with 15 passenger seats plus wheelchair space. Its length is 7.5m, with an unladen weight of 3,194kg, and it will comfortably cover the 100 miles per day needed for the Milton Park service on a single charge. With First Bus as project lead, the service will be provided by its subsidiary First Beeline Buses. It will run from the operator’s Slough garage, which has not previously operated full plug-in electric vehicles other than auxiliary vans, although a number of hybrid buses form part of the depot’s normal run-out.

Also present at Milton Park was a second, larger, single-deck Switch Metrocity with a capacity of 29 seats plus wheelchair space. Naturally this was heavier at 8,160 kgs and although carefully manoeuvred through the access road for display outside the press gathering at Bee House, did not form part of the demonstration. With a range of approximately 190 miles per charge and an overall length of around 9 metres, it will not form part of the internal Milton Park service but instead will be used on the connecting service to Didcot railway station. Both vehicles are of course to PSVAR specification.

Sensors

The autonomous systems fitted to the Mellor bus are provided by Fusion Processing and comprise on-vehicle sensors including radar, LiDAR and optical camera equipment. In the interests of rigorous safety standards, a secondary system is installed in order to detect any obstruction should they not, for any reason, be identified by the main equipment.

Fusion Processing’s CEO Jim Hutchinson, looking at future markets, indicated: “Our market analysis indicates that the commercial vehicle segments are where we will see autonomous vehicle technology first used in large scale deployment.

“Projects such as this highlight Fusion’s leadership in the automation of buses, HGVs and freight tugs, in each case offering fleet operators enhanced safety and operational efficiency. Powering this revolution in transport is our CAVstar automated drive system which combines a range of radar, LiDAR and optical sensors with state-of-the-art artificial intelligence processing unit, and it can be retrofitted into any vehicle to provide SAE Level 4 autonomy.”

Fusion’s Director of Marketing Jim Fleming highlighted further benefits of autonomous vehicles and suggested that ‘consistent driving standards could save between 10 and 20% associated with fuel and tyres’ and believes autonomous buses might appear on normal roads as soon as 2025.

There are five levels of specification for autonomous vehicles in the UK, some cars already having autonomous features such as lane detection on motorways and auto-parking. The Mi-Link vehicles take the technology to level 4, which extends to the entire driving task and increases the functions to be performed. With a bus service following a specific route in conditions such as Milton Park, these can be fully utilised.

Milton Park

The selection of Milton Park as the location of these trials was based on its suitability for an autonomous service. The road network is covered by a 20mph speed restriction and revised white lining has been carried out in order that this can be easily identified by the Fusion systems on board the buses. The operation falls under the Western Traffic Area and Western Traffic Commissioner Kevin Rooney was present at the event.

Milton Park itself already strongly encourages the use of local bus services with clear bus stopping locations positioned through the area. It has a partnership with Oxford Bus Company and Thames Travel, and has sought to make services as easy to use as possible, including by subsidising fares and increasing bus frequency, which it says has helped to increase bus use by 12% since 2019, almost doubling the number of passengers taking the bus to and from the business park. The Park’s operators hope that the addition of the autonomous bus connections will further enhance the attractiveness of services.

Both buses displayed will eventually form the full service, with drivers drawn from the Slough depot pool. The planned timetable is expected to commence in two phases with a small number of technical details still to be finalised. Within a week or two of the launch, the minibus was expected to commence a free public service around Milton Park itself which, is composed of private roads but where public road rules apply.

The second phase will follow in around six weeks using the larger vehicle, which will connect Milton Park via the main road network to the Great Western main railway line at nearby Didcot Parkway station.

On the road

A test ride was taken on the Mellor Orion E minibus and whilst a human driver guided the vehicle to take up the planned bus service route, the autonomous features then took over, with an audible indication that this had occurred. It is mandatory for all passengers to fasten their seat belts as although no such incident occurred during our test drive it is possible that a hurried stop might occur if the sensors on the vehicle detects an unexpected obstruction. Indeed, it was pointed out that a human driver might warn passengers of an impending sudden stop which wouldn’t occur in autonomous mode.

In fact with a maximum speed of 20 mph, the journey was conducted smoothly and with caution, the vehicle following clear road markings and even negotiating pedestrian crossings marked on the carriageway where detection of a person on the kerb results in a reduction in speed or even a complete halt. At junctions, unlike a human driver, the sensors are able to ‘look’ in every direction simultaneously before proceeding. At every stage, unless sure of a clear path ahead, the vehicle slows or stops. At one location – a junction where a large articulated lorry had parked to unload – the guidance system was unable to interpret whether it should proceed. The human driver had then to take over to manoeuvre around the obstruction before once again resuming autonomous guidance.

Not long ago, a driverless road-going vehicle was considered to be something from science fiction, but this is no longer the case. As this equipment is further developed and refined, it is not difficult to imagine the need for a human to be on board might occur less and less.

Benefits

The increased use of electric buses – and those using other sustainable fuels – is now rapidly extending across the country, especially in cities and towns. In the drive towards net zero it is a contribution by the passenger transport industry towards significantly improving air quality. The combination of this with autonomous vehicle operation takes this concept to a higher level, and keeps the UK at the forefront of new technological development.

The obvious question which leads from the ability to operate a bus without the driver taking control is ‘will this eventually lead to completely driverless buses?’ Janette Bell, Managing Director of First Bus, said: “I don’t see a pilot trial such as this solving the driver shortage problem as the role of the driver is core to what bus travel is all about. It will give the driver more opportunity to be customer facing. This is not a way to cutting costs.”

It was a point stressed by colleague John Birtwistle, Head of Policy at First Bus, who said: “Drivers will still be needed to assist with wheelchairs, give information and perform an ambassadorial role. We will still require a person on board.”

Janette added: “First Bus serves millions of customers in the UK, and we know that so many of our customers take the bus because they care about our planet and reducing their carbon footprint. We’re excited to now be able to offer them an even greener and quieter way to travel, and we cannot wait to hear some feedback on the new buses.”

Press conference

John Birtwistle of First Bus chaired the press conference at the launch of the new service, and before introducing the speakers, took a moment to mention that the buses were UK built and fully accessible.

Richard Holden MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State with responsibility for roads and local transport, then took to the floor. Having arrived at the event by bus, he enthused about the bus launch as the culmination of many years of cultivation and innovation as UK industry-led research, adding: “These vehicles present an enormous opportunity. 88% of accidents have an element of human factors while these buses will improve air quality benefits and support the road to net zero. It is thrilling to see the Government’s £3m investment help British firms and engineers pioneer new, exciting ideas to achieve our vision of a truly efficient and sustainable transport network.

“The launch of the UK’s first autonomous zero-emission bus today is yet another key step towards achieving Net Zero, creating high-wage, high-skilled new jobs and opportunities while truly levelling up transport across the country.”

He added: “Last year legislation was laid out for autonomous vehicles to run by 2025. The UK is one of the most promising countries paving the way for these technologies.”

Innovate UK Executive Director for Net Zero Mike Biddle said: “The connected and automated mobility sector is of crucial importance to the UK, with the potential to deliver safer, cleaner and more efficient transport systems across a wider range of settings. This multi-connected and autonomous vehicles project, part of a wider package of government R&D funding, will deliver the research required to support the future of multi-modal passenger carrying services.”

Philip Campbell, Commercial Director for MEPC Milton Park then spoke about why Milton was the ideal location to host the autonomous bus trials. He explained: “The MultiCAV trials represent a landmark step in the future of green autonomous travel. Given the array of innovative life science and tech companies based at Milton Park, it’s fitting that the next generation of passenger transport is taking shape here.

“While the trials are of national significance, they are also an important step in encouraging people across Milton Park, Didcot and wider South Oxfordshire to travel in a more sustainable way – a critical pillar of the Park’s 2040 vision. We look forward to collaborating further with the other partners to ensure these exciting trials become a blueprint for the future of sustainable public transport and connectivity.”

As the trial prepares to go live with members of the travelling public making use of the services, it will not only be possible to gauge the reliability of the equipment, but also assess passenger reaction to travel without a human driver in control. We will continue to follow developments with great interest.

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